Saturday, June 14, 2008

We can add Maryland and North Carolina to the list of states that have confirmed at least one victim of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. That brings the number of states to 26.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has identified one case of Salmonella Saintpaul, and has confirmed that the microbe, which they isolated from a Baltimore patient, matches the molecular fingerprint of the outbreak strain.

These new cases bring the total number of lab-confirmed victims of this outbreak to 232 as of this morning. Based on CDC estimates that, on average, only one case of Salmonella infection in 38 is ever reported, roughly 8,800 people have been infected by the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul so far.

And FDA is still trying to figure out where the contaminated tomatoes originated.